cuchulainn
Member
from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0603/26guns.html
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0603/26guns.html
Metro firearm dealers warned
U.S. attorney threatens prison for illegal sales
By BILL RANKIN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
About 850 federally licensed firearms dealers across metro Atlanta and North Georgia have been put on notice that dire consequences await them if they are caught illegally selling weapons.
In letters mailed this week to hundreds of gun stores, pawn shops and individual gun dealers, U.S. Attorney Bill Duffey let the licensees know that "rigorous enforcement of federal law prohibiting illegal gun sales will, of course, deter or prevent illegal sales."
Federal penalties for such violations are stiff, the Atlanta prosecutor added.
Any firearms dealer who sells a weapon or ammunition to someone the dealer knows or has reason to believe is younger than 18 could face five years in prison, the letter said. A licensee who knowingly falsifies records of illegal purchases could face the same exposure of prison time.
In addition to his warning, Duffey also asked for help. He noted that dealers who scrutinize "suspicious" buyers can keep guns from getting into the wrong hands.
The letters were sent out shortly before a federal grand jury indicted a pawn shop dealer in Rome.
Johnnie Brazier, who owns United Sales and Pawn, was charged Tuesday with 12 counts, including not conducting a criminal background check on a purchaser of a firearm.
According to court records, earlier this year Brazier allowed a woman whom he knew was under indictment to arrange for another person to buy her a gun.
What Brazier apparently didn't know was that the woman, who has not been identified, was cooperating with federal agents and used a U.S. agent to make the straw purchase for her.
Brazier, who also faces drug charges, blamed the arrest on a "mix-up in the paperwork," his lawyer, Robert T. Guggenheim, of Rome, said. "He's not admitting to deliberately doing anything wrong."
Duffey said his office's focus has broadened from prosecuting the straw buyers of illegal firearms to dealers who knowingly make sales to straw purchasers.
"We have been focused in the past several months on those people who illegally possess weapons," Duffey said. "But there are really two sides to the equation -- those who illegally buy weapons and those who illegally sell them. We're now going after the dealers who are violating the law."
Duffey declined to say whether federal authorities would send undercover agents to make illegal purchases.
"The purpose of the letter is to serve notice on the dealers," Duffey said. "We will use all the investigative techniques that are available to us to investigate and prosecute illegal sellers of firearms."
Vanessa McLemore, the special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms office in Atlanta, said she believes that "a small number" of firearms dealers may be engaged in illegal activity. But these few can make the entire industry look bad, she said.
"We don't want federal firearms dealers knowingly providing crime guns to the community," McLemore said. "If we come across any indication that we have a federal firearms dealer who may be engaged in criminal activity or is knowingly allowing it to happen, we're going to focus on that."
